Shortly after returning home from a Lewiston hospital after being rescued from the icy Androscoggin River on Jan. 31, Rumford snowmobiler Michael Thurston went to thank one of his rescuers, Dick Bonnell.

Bonnell, a neighbor, said Thurston thanked him profusely for saving his life. When asked what Thurston could do for him in return, Bonnell said he simply told him to stay off the river.

Thurston said he would.

During the conversation, Bonnell said Thurston told him that he thought he had died out there, because he recalled seeing a light at the end of a tunnel.

That’s when Bonnell told him, “That wasn’t THAT light. That was my flashlight shining in your eyes!”

Mother’s advice

While extremely grateful that area rescuers saved her son Michael Thurston after his snowmobile ran into open water on the night of Jan. 31, Karen Cole would like people to realize a couple of things.

First, people need to stay off the Androscoggin River.

“It’s a constantly moving, changing object. It’s just not safe,” said Cole, an emergency room nurse. She said her son was mostly submerged in the water for 90 minutes, pinned by the current against an ice floe.

“And the other thing is that when an emergency or disaster like this has happened, you know, for our law enforcement, fire department and warden service, the first thing that they need to remember is that this person is alive until proven otherwise.

“Because some of them had given him up for dead and had made this a recovery and not a rescue. And this is what I was told from bystanders that were there. I know from what they tell us that 10 to 15 minutes in frigid water is fatal. It will kill you.

“But there’s always an exception to every rule and until you have proof or you know that there is nobody in that hole of water, or you have not found a body yet, you cannot give up on these people. You can’t give them up for dead before you give them a chance,” Cole said.

One of Thurston’s rescuers, volunteer Rumford fire Capt. Spencer Couture, offered some more insight.

“I think they knew in their hearts that he was dead, but at no point did I feel they were in (body) recovery mode,” Couture said.

Thurston “made one bad decision that night (to ride the river) and the rest of the evening, he made all the right choices, you know. He kicked his boots off, he took his helmet off, but he left his coat on. That gave him some mild insulation once the water got in to his body….He chose to hold out to the last and there he is today,” Couture added.

– Terry Karkos